Summary: This is a chapter focused on the technique of tiering assignments, which is a useful Differentiated technique for teaching students of varied skill levels. For the most part, tiering acts as a sliding scale of difficulty; used to add in assessment standards or content requirements for advanced learners, or to simplify the assessment for struggling students. Some specific methods of doing this are brought up, such as Learning Contracts, which allow the student to make their own deadlines, which they then agree to in writing. Other strategies are less concrete, but many can be used to tier the assessment in either direction.
Key Thought: First of all, none of the members of this group had ever heard the term tiering applied to instruction, at the very least not in this detail. We all saw this as an important method for the Differentiated classroom, wherein a little extra time on the teacher's part can result in a dramatic change in the student's experience. The theory behind the tiering method was also expressed in a more poetic manner(which appeals to my MI leanings) in Williams's Taxonomy of Creativity, which being placed towards the end of the chapter provides an alternate perspective on this theory.
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